Infant care units, such as warming therapy devices (e.g., incubators, warmers, etc.) that includes various systems for controlling the temperature and humidity to facilitate the development of a premature infant, are known. Such devices conventionally include an infant support surface for supporting an infant, as well as means of protecting the infant, such as a hood or canopy which covers the infant support surface.
It is typical in such devices to provide access to the infant. For example, side panels may be provided with access openings through which caregivers gain access to the infant. Such devices may also include hoods that have access doors to provide further access to the infant. It is also known for the hoods of such devices to be movable away from the infant support surface, and for the side panels of such units to be movable away from the infant support surface to provide still further access to the infant.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,880,188, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference in this application as if fully set forth herein, discloses an infant care apparatus with a movable infant support. The infant support is slideable along rails from a central position, to positions offset born the central position (See FIGS. 5-7). However, the infant care apparatus does not allow rotation of the mattress, which limits the types of examinations that can be performed by the care giver. For example, if the right side of the infant patient (200) needs to be examined, the movable infant support (21) must be moved to the right-hand side position of the infant care apparatus (shown in FIG. 7), which requires lowering of the right-hand side panel (144). If then, the left side of the infant patient (200) needs to be examined, the movable infant support (21) must be moved to the left-hand side position of the infant care apparatus (shown in FIG. 6), which requires lowering in the right-hand side panel (122), and so forth. In practice, infant patients are not typically examined from one side or another, and therefore access to the entire body of the infant would be preferable.
It would be beneficial to further improve a caregiver's access to an infant patient disposed on an infant support of a warming therapy device. It would also be beneficial to provide convenient access to the infant support flit maintenance and cleaning purposes. Accordingly, there is presently a need for a warming therapy device with an infant support which is moveable in various directions to permit access to the entire body of an infant.